FIBA AfroBasket Qualifier
@Salle El Bouazzaoui Arena
*Morocco 65-77 Uganda
Uganda men’s national basketball team, Silverbacks have qualified for the FIBA AfroBasket tournament after beating Morocco 77-65 in a second window qualifier match on Thursday, 8th July at the Salle El Bouazzaoui Arena in Sale.
The result implies that Uganda have qualified for the event proper, FIBA AfroBasket scheduled to be held in Kigali, Rwanda from August 24 to September 5 2021.
At the AfroBasket, Uganda are seeded in Group D with Senegal, Cameroon and South Sudan who had qualified for the event a few months ago.
For Uganda, debutant Arthur Kaluma shot an impressive 20 points while pre-match top prospect Ishmael Wainright didn’t disappoint as he shot 11 points and 12 rebounds.
Uganda who had won two games and lost one in the first qualifying window in November 2020 (losing 96-77 to hosts Egypt and beating Morocco and Cape Verde 94-90 and 101-98 respectively) finish second in Group E.
First placed Egypt already qualified for the Kigali event and they will be joined by Cape Verde who finished third in Group E, while Morroco fail to make it to the AfroBasket after finishing at the rock bottom of the group.
There were five qualifying groups and the top three from each group and a wildcard formed the 16 teams that qualified for the FIBA Afrobasket.
Uganda’s Team:
Jimmy Enabu (City Oilers), James Okello (City Oilers), Tonny Drileba (City Oilers), Benjamin Komakech (City Oilers), Titus Odeke (UCU Canons), Ronson Odoch Opong (Canada), Eric Rwahwire (Canada), Keiran Zziwa (Canada), Ghedi Muhamed (USA), Geu Dengeu John (Denmark), Ishmail Wainright (France) and Arthur Kaluma (USA).
Coaches:
George Galanopoulos, Mandy Juruni, Michael Schmitz and Andrew Tendo Senyondwa.
